Image source, Reuters

As we reported earlier, there's been some shelling in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and we have now learned that the overall death toll from that has risen to seven civilians killed.

Regional governor Oleh Synehubov also says 17 people, including a nine-year-old girl, were wounded in the attack.

"The shelling was done by multiple-launch rocket systems and artillery. It shows that the enemy is yet again treacherously targeting and terrorising the civilian population," he said on messaging app Telegram, external.

"Therefore, I'm asking you again: don't go outside unless you really need to, pay attention to air raid sirens and take shelter when they sound.

"Believe me, it is way too early to relax. Our armed forces know what they’re doing, pushing the enemy back. But fierce fighting is ongoing to the north and north-east."

Image source, PA Media

A British man who fled Kyiv with his family says his Ukrainian wife is in distress because her therapy dog has been stuck in quarantine for weeks.

Mike Haley, 61, fled the country with his wife Alla, 51, and her 81-year-old mother Valentyna.

They travelled more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) with Pomeranian Archie, who helps Mrs Haley manage panic attacks.

But the couple, now in Newcastle, said red tape over vaccination issues meant the dog could not join them.

Mr Haley, originally from Jarrow, had been working as an English teacher and translator when the war started in February.

After travelling via Poland to Amsterdam, they sailed to North Shields with Archie who, they said, had helped keep their spirits up by giving them "something else to focus on".

But on arriving in the UK, the dog was held by the Animal and Plant Health Agency, they said.

Read more about their story here.

Image source, Reuters

Russian armed forces have been battling in recent days to capture territory near Kramatorsk in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

A missile strike earlier this week hit an abandoned building, damaging nearby residential buildings, according to Reuters.

Pictures of the city taken today show devastation.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

As we've been reporting, at least four people have been killed in shelling in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, which has been largely untouched by Russian unforces in recent weeks.

The city's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, says officials will designate special areas in the underground metro system where residents can stay until the shelling stops, adding the metro will not be stopped again.

The Kharkiv metro, with 30 stations, restarted its services two days ago on Tuesday after being used as a bomb shelter for three months since Russia's invasion began.

"It's loud and dangerous in Kharkiv today. Enemy forces are shelling our city again. People have been wounded and, unfortunately, killed," Terekhov says in a video address.

He calls on people to stay in safe locations such as basements, shelters and metro stations.

Image source, EPA

To southern Ukraine now, where a small town has partially flooded because the Russian forces occupying it reportedly won't allow repairs at a local hydroelectric power plant to go ahead, the Ukrainian military says.

Nova Kakhovka sits in the Kherson region, which, towards the end of April, became the first major city to fall to Russia since the war began. It is the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant that needs work done to it.

Oleksiy Hromov, deputy head of the Ukrainian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate, said prolonged damage could lead to an "environmental disaster". He described large quantities of water spilling out of the plant due to two broken hydraulic units, but said "the occupiers" wouldn't budge.

"Surrounding villages and the occupied city of Kherson are at risk,” he was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Image source, Ukrainian Presidential Press Service

The prime minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on an unannounced trip to Kyiv.

She also visited the devastated Ukrainian towns of Irpin and Bucha, according to the local authorities.

Marin was seen wearing a bullet-proof vest, walking with officials and soldiers.

The prime minister recently announced Finland's historic decision to apply for Nato membership.

She's got whole-hearted support from the US, but Turkey is threatening to block both Finland and Sweden - accusing the Nordic nations of harbouring Kurdish militants.

What is Nato and how can Finland and Sweden join? Read our Q&A.

Image source, Kyiv Regional State Administration

Image source, Kyiv Regional State Administration

Image source, .

Russia's military has been making gains in eastern Ukraine, having shifted most of the focus of its war there - putting the Ukrainian army under more pressure than at any time since the first desperate weeks of the war.

The battle for Ukraine's old industrial heartland known as Donbas is likely to decide the fate of the Russian invasion.

It comes as Ukraine is beginning to admit Russia is getting the upper hand in some eastern areas - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Russians could be killing up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers a day in Donbas.

Zelensky has described conditions in eastern Ukraine as extremely difficult despite having some of their best-trained forces already posted in the east because of an eight-year war with Russian-backed separatists.

Ukraine's deputy defence minister says the fighting in Donbas has reached maximum intensity, with the Russians storming Ukrainian positions in several areas simultaneously.

"As of today, the aggressor conducts intensified fire along the whole line of contact and the positions of our forces in the Donetsk operational region. The enemy uses tactical rocket systems, aviation and artillery," Hanna Maliar says.

"The situation is difficult and there are signs of escalation. The enemy has used all resources to capture our territory and surround our forces. The fighting has reached maximum intensity. The enemy attacks our positions at different points simultaneously. We are in for a very difficult and long stage of the struggle."

Earlier, the authorities in Donbas said the Russians had attacked more than 40 settlements in their drive to take the strategic towns of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, the AFP news agency reports.

Image source, .

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine’s chief prosecutor has told the BBC she’s investigating almost 14,000 cases of alleged war crimes by Russian forces.

Speaking in London on her first trip out of Ukraine since the invasion began, Iryna Venediktova says between 100 and 200 new cases come in each day.

She's been meeting Britain’s Attorney General, Suella Braverman, and other officials to discuss what more the UK and other Western powers could do to support the investigation process.

Venediktova says the most common alleged war crime is the shelling of civilian buildings, especially hospitals and schools. In all, she says more than 1,000 medical and educational buildings have been destroyed.

She also says civilians are being killed, and there is looting and raping.

Venediktova also reveals she has even begun investigating allegations of genocide.

“I absolutely agree that we in Ukraine have genocide. Why? Because they, I mean, the Russian [military] and Russian top commanders came to [Ukraine], to destroy [the] Ukrainian state, to kill all Ukrainians, and they want this land to [be] like a part of [the] Russian Federation.” But she accepts it would be hard to investigate genocide in Russian-controlled territory.

She says Ukraine’s legal authorities should take the lead in prosecuting war crimes “because only we understand our land, our people, our ground”. But she accepts the International Criminal Court in The Hague should play a role in prosecuting senior Russian leaders for the invasion, potentially even Vladimir Putin.

“We all understand that this [is a] big fish, it's a fish for international justice,” Venediktova says.

Image source, Anadolu / Getty

A senior Ukrainian military official admits Russia has the upper hand - in both aviation and artillery - in fighting in the eastern Luhansk region.

Oleksiy Gromov of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says at a briefing that Ukrainian forces are "trying with all our might to change the situation".

"Yes, the enemy currently has an advantage both in aviation and in artillery, but we are doing everything possible. The provision of modern weapons from partner countries will accelerate our victory," Interfax news agency quotes him as saying.

He says the situation is "difficult, but stable" in the area of Severodonetsk.

There, Russia has been operating in a "classical" way, he says, first attacking from the air, then with artillery and then sending in ground forces.

Image source, Anadolu / Getty

Image source, .

Image source, Serhei Orlov

A proposal to condemn the regional health emergency triggered by Russia's attacks in Ukraine will come before a World Health Organization (WHO) assembly today, prompting a rival resolution from Moscow that makes no mention of its own role in the crisis.

The original proposal, backed by the US and more than 40 other countries, condemns Russia's actions but stops short of immediately suspending its voting rights at the UN health agency.

Russia's proposal, backed by Syria, which echoes the language of the first text, will also be decided on.

Both resolutions express "grave concerns over the ongoing health emergency in and around Ukraine", but only the Western-led proposal says the emergency is "triggered by the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine".

A senior diplomat at the Russian mission in Geneva says: "The resolution holds a series of anti-Russian statements and groundless accusations and therefore cannot be supported."

Another reflection now of the ferocity of fighting in Ukraine's east.

More than 150 children have been killed in the Donetsk region since Russia launched its invasion, says the Ukrainian prosecutor-general.

The figure is significantly more than in any other region of the country. The nationwide tally is at least 240.

Image source, Reuters

Russia has warned it plans to boot out journalists from Western nations if YouTube insists on blocking access to Moscow's foreign ministry briefings.

Maria Zakharova, the department's spokesperson, who holds a weekly briefing on Russian foreign policy, including the war in Ukraine, said she had warned the video platform against restricting her content.

She is quoted by Russian news agency Tass as saying:

She added that Moscow was working on measures against English-language media in response to what it considered “unfriendly actions” by foreign governments towards Russian news outlets.

It comes after President Putin, in March, signed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading "fake news" about the military.

Image source, EPA

At least four people were killed when the centre of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv was shelled, according to regional governor Oleh Synehubov.

It's been weeks since the city has come under attack.

Details are still coming in.

Image source, EPA

Russia has denied US and EU claims that it is blocking grain exports from Ukraine, and accused the West of creating such a situation by imposing sanctions.

Ukrainian farmers have 20 million tonnes of grain they cannot get to international markets due to the ongoing invasion.

"We categorically do not accept these accusations. On the contrary, we blame Western countries for taking actions that have led to this," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Moscow called for the West to remove the sanctions which it says are blocking grain exports from Ukraine.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this week Russia was using "hunger and grain to wield power", while Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of grain in areas their forces have occupied.

This astonishing footage filmed by an AFP journalist, external earlier this week shows shells exploding either side of a road leading to the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.

Thick plumes of smoke can be seen following the detonations.

Fighting in the east has intensified in the last week, with Russia refocusing its efforts in the region as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's bid to take Ukraine's old industrial heartland.

Two captured Russian soldiers have been shown pleading guilty in court in the second war crimes trial to be held in Ukraine.

The two artillerymen, Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, are accused of violating the laws of war by shelling a town, and prosecutors want to jail them for 12 years. The shelling destroyed an educational establishment in Derhachi, prosecutors say.

"I am completely guilty of the crimes of which I am accused," Bobikin told the court in Kotelva, Poltava region, according to Reuters news agency. "We fired at Ukraine from Russia."

Ivanov said: "I repent and ask for a reduction in the sentence."

A defence lawyer asked for leniency, saying the soldiers had been following orders.

There was no immediate comment on the case from Russian officials.

A final verdict is expected on 31 May.

Earlier this week, a court in the capital Kyiv jailed a Russian tank commander for life for killing a civilian at the first war crimes trial since the invasion.

Image source, AFP

The Ukrainian government has condemned a move by the Kremlin to fast-track Russian citizenship for Ukrainians in two southern regions invaded by Russian troops.

On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the process for obtaining Russian passports for people in Kherson and parts of Zaporizhzhia under Moscow's control.

"The decree is legally null and void & will have no legal consequences," Ukraine's diplomatic mission to the EU tweeted, external, saying the move was an attempt to force Ukrainians to change citizenship.

Control of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia secures Russian access to Crimea, the Ukrainian territory Moscow annexed in 2014.

Before the start of the invasion on 24 February, Russia said it had issued passports to at least 860,000 people in separatist-controlled areas of two other Ukrainian regions, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Image source, Getty Images

More detail now from Severodonetsk - a city under siege as Russia tries to gain the rest of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region.

The city has been under "constant fire" for the past week-and-a-half, according to the head of the local military-civil administration.

Some 90% of housing has been damaged by the fighting, Oleksandr Stryuk tells Ukraine's NV radio station.

About 12,000-13,000 people are still thought to be in the city, Stryuk says - many of them sheltering in basements.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the exit of some foreign companies from Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine "may be for the best", Reuters news agency reports.

Putin, who was speaking via video link to an economic forum of post-Soviet states held in Kyrgyzstan, said it was impossible to cut off Russia from Western technology despite sanctions.

Putin says Russia is seeing problems in its transportation and supply chains and that the country will continue to import substitutions, but that this is not a solution, he adds.

"The theft of assets by the West will lead to no good," he says, adding that Russia is competitive and remains the top exporter of wheat.

He adds it's important for Russia to move away from the Swift banking system - an international payment system used by thousands of financial institutions - in settlements with ex-Soviet partners.

It comes after the EU and its allies suspended seven institutions from the system in March, and has proposed excluding three more Russian banks from Swift.